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The national football teams of the United States will be the home team of next year’s World Cup and they could make a big splash.
Eleven of the 16 host stadiums in next year’s tournament, which begins exactly one year from Wednesday, is in the US, with New Jersey’s Metlife Stadium, hosting the final.
After 1994, Major League Soccer was born, and it goes without saying that the immediate increase in football’s popularity in the country was exponential.
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Landon Donovan and Alexi Lalas (Imagn; Getty Images)
But it is apparently affected by a wall in recent years, as usmnt has not exactly given Americans a chance to understand.
The team entered the round of 16 in 2010 and 2014, but could even qualify for the tournament in 2018.
However, Team USA legend Landon Donovan feels that football is “safe” in the country, even though Team USA is disappointing, and its popularity can only go up from here.
“There will be a lot of pressure, definitely on this team. You play a World Cup in front of your home crowd that will definitely be pressure. Is the state of football in trouble if they are not doing well? No,” Donovan said in a conference interview with journalists this week.
“There is a massive, massive option [for this team]. In my experiences from the World Cup ’02, when we did really well, my life changed, and the pitch to the US football changed a little. “
But again, Donovan scored one of the most famous goals in US football history: His goal in stopping time against Algeria set the United States through the group stage for the first time since 2002.
“In 2010, it was that on steroids, when we had an iconic moment. So if this team can do one of two things, either go a long way and/or have an iconic moment or two, it will catapult through the roof of this country.”
The American player Landon Donovan (10) celebrates after scoring the winning goal in the 91st minute when the United States defeated Algeria, 1-0, in a FIFA World Cup Group C-match in 2010 in Tshwane/Pretoria, South Africa. (Adam Jacobs/Icon Smi/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)
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Alex Lasry, CEO of the Nynj host committee, offered similar feelings and said the global stars coming to the United States will be enough to grow the sport itself.
“If it ends up being what we hope, I don’t think it will dampen what the World Cup means for the United States,” Lasry told Pakinomist Digital at Jersey City’s Liberty State Park, home to the official 2026 World Cup Fan Festival and hosted a one -year countdown party on Wednesday.
“I don’t think it will dampen how the 6-, 7-, 8-year-olds look at it. Having [Lionel] Messi, [Kylian] Mbappe, [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Christian] Pulisic, the stars of the sport here, is what will lead to the next generation of athletes saying, ‘I want to be part of it.’ “
Fellow USMnt -Alun Alexi Lalas took the other side of the coin. While he agrees with Donovan that all it takes is a special moment to get the country firm, he said he won’t let this team “from the hook.”
“This is a generation that has worked in the last 30 plus years to make sure they have everything they may need in terms of the opportunities and resources they have, and with it comes higher expectations and fair expectations,” Lalas said. “Whoever is eventually in that field next summer I hope they recognize the opportunity and responsibility to promote the game. What [does that look] like? It can come in many different forms. But when the last whistle blows for the American team, you will leave to think, ‘It was something I will remember. It made me proud not just to be a football fan in the United States, but to be an American. ” ”
Alexi Lalas (Katelyn Mulcahy – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
“You have to be ready for it and embrace this opportunity with both hands and make the most of it,” he said. “I don’t want to let them off the hook because I think they can do things that we haven’t seen before. They need the football gods to smile, but every team in the World Cup needs some luck in the future. And over the next year they have to work on what’s going on and I think the attitude from the field to make sure they maximize.”
The FIFA world championship in 2026 will take place in North America next year and will be shown on Fox Sports.
